Stylographic pen



Feb. 6, 1940. A. E. ANDREWS ET AL 2,189,696

STYLOGRAPHIC PEN Filed Dec. 13, 1958 Patented Feb. 6, 1 940 STYLOGRAPHICPEN Arthur Edward Andrews, Hackney, London, and William FrederickJohnson, London,,England,

assignors to Mentmore Manufacturing Co. Limited, Hackney, London,England, a company of Great Britain Application December 13, 1938,Serial No. 245,490 In Great Britain February 18, 1938 8 Claims.

This invention relates to stylographic pens and isconcerned moreparticularly, although not exclusively, with stylographic pens of theyselffilling type.

In the majority of the stylographic perisheretofore known, the feed wireextending axially through the conical point section secured to the penbarrel is guided adjacent to its free end in a fine-bore tube ofnon-corrodible material, usuallvm al, hi c nstitutes the writing p nt.ihis small tube is relatively short and is. inserted in the nose Qf,the,point section of the pen which is usually of a material such asvulcanite.

. It requires great skill and. care to. fit. the tube satisfactorilysince, if it becomes loose or assumes an inclination relatively to theaxis of the point section, the. feed wire, cannot; move freely withinthe tube and the flow of. ink to the point. of the latter is impeded or,disturbed. In. addition, the point section iseasily broken, so. that thetube falls out and/or the pen becomes. useless.

. The feed wire itself is, in some cases, constantly urged outwardly.by. a spiral spring to which it has been formed at itsinner end and is,in other cases, urged outwardly (downwardly) when the pen is in use by aweighted feed I bar mountedwithin the point section and carryingthe saidfeed wire.

Where self-filling pens are concerned .it is necessary to provide airvents, or. the like in the point section to, facilitate the filling ofthe pens and the provisions usually made arev of a complicatedunaturerequiring skilled labour and a number of different. operationsfortheirsatisfactory application.

An important object of the present. invention is to provide improvementsin the construction of stylographic pens, particularly inthe writingpoint and the parts associatedtherewith, which shall greatly simplifyand cheapen the assembly and improve the efficiency of the pens.

According to one feature of thisinvention, therefore, a stylographicpen, particularly a selffilling.stylographicv pen, comprises a tubularpoint section having a relatively wide mouth, a .tubular tip fixed in.the said mouth and a fine- .bore tube, which constitutes; the writing.point, formed with the said tip as one integral part of non-.corrodiblemetal.

According to. another feature of the invention, a 'stylographic pen.comprises .a. writing point formed integrally with a tubular tipwhich isadapted to. fitv into andbe frictionally' retained in abore in. thepoint. sectionof the pen, the said bore opening to .the atmosphere. atthe free end of the point section and the tip being formed with anaperture'or apertures affording communication between its interior andthe said bore. 1

Yet a further feature of the invention is the use of a weighted feed barcarrying the usual feed wire and formed with longitud nal extendinggrooves. The feed bar is preferably a close, but not frictional, fit inthe interior of the tip and may be'prevented from falling into the inkreservoir by forming or providing the point section of the pen with stopmeans adapted to engage the end of the feed bar,

One manner in which the invention may be carried into effect will now bedescribed by way of example and with reference to the accompanyingdrawing, in which:

Fig. l is a. longitudinal section of the pen, Fig, 2 a cross-section online II--II in Fig. 1, and I Fig. 3 a longitudinal sectional view of thetubular tip :and the feed bar withdrawn therefrom. g

In the example illustrated, a tubular point section! is produced from asuitable material, such as asynthetic'resincomposition, to exhibit anaxial bore 2, 3, an externally waisted or coned lower end 4 and aninwardly stepped upper end which may beexternally screw-threaded forthefirst part 5 of its length to engage in the correspondingly threadedmouth of the pen barrel 6- and, in the illustrated case of aself-filling pen, may bev smooth for the remaining part 1 of itslength'to receive the inksac. 8.. The lower part 2 0i the axialbore inthe point s'ection l is of slightly larger diameter than the upper part3, such largerdiameter persisting for, say, about /s..or of the lengthof thebore.

A hollow thin-Walled tubular tip e is formed in one piece, preferablybya drawing operation, from a non-corrodiblemetal which is most. ad

vantageously stainless. steel, and exhibits a section I, theshoulderl-Sformed in the bore ,servingas a stop to limit the extent to which.the tip 9 is introduced.v The length of the. cylindrical portion I2-v ofthe tipis preferably such that, when engaged in the pointsection, atleast the conical portion, H projects. beyond the said point secti0n.One or:.mo.re. apertures l4 (two are shown) are formed through the wallof the said cylindrical portion l2 at a location such that they willafford communication between the interior thereof and an annular spacel5 formed around the exterior of the tip by a recess of larger diameterin the point section I. Such communication is preferably establishedwell within the annular space it and, if desired, at or adjacent to theinner end thereof. The outer end may be flared slightly as shown in Fig.1.

Within the tip 9 is located a feed-bar l6 which is preferably of heavyconstruction and has the feed wire it directly sec'uredtherein. Apreferred construction has a feed-bar it in the form of a cylindricalrod of lead with longitudinally extending grooves 18 which may, ifdesired, increase slightly in depth in the direction away from the feedwire ll. The rod is tapered somewhat at the end It where the axial feedwire is inserted, to conform to the internal shape of the conicalportion H of the tip 9, and is preferably similarly tapered at theopposite end 20, the grooves extending over the tapered faces also(Figs. 1 and 3). The lead may be cast to shape and the wire may have itsone end embedded therein during this operation. The diameter of thefeed-bar i6 is slightly less than the internal diameter of the part 52of the tip 9, so that it fits closely to the latter While being free toslide therein. The grooves i8 co-operate with the wall of the tip 9 toconstitute capillary passages. With the pen held point downwards thefeed wire I! projects slightly through the point IU of the point section(Fig. 1).

In order to prevent the feed-bar Hi from falling into the ink-reservoir8 when the pen is held point upwards, the inner end 5 of the pointsection I is preferably formed with stop means extending part-way acrossthe bore therein. Such stop means may be produced by arranging for theportion 3 in the point section to terminate just short of the inner endthereof and forming a conical depression 2| and aperture 22 in the outerend of the said section, the aperture 22 being of less diameter than thefeed-bar [8. To improve the flow of ink the conical wall of thedepression may-be formed, if desired, with radial grooves or sawcuts(not shown) which divide the annular stop means into two or moresector-shaped parts.

In the assembly of the pen, the ink-sac 3 (when provided) is firstengaged over the end i of the point section i which is then screwed intothe barrel 6. The feed-bar I6 is inserted into the bore of the pointsection so that its end 26 rests on the stop means therein and the tip 9is engaged over the projecting end of the feed-bar and forced intofrictional engagement with the portion 2 of the bore in the pointsection.

In use, a slight writing pressure on the point of the feed wire I!causes this to recede into the tubular point it of the tip and ink fiowsfrom the reservoir 3 through the capillary passages l8 to the writingpoint. The tapered ends I9, 20 of the feed-bar, and the fact that thegrooves extend to the extremities of these, ensure that the ink will bepicked up very readily from the ink-reservoir and conducted directly onto the feed wire H, respectively. Easy fiow of ink, without flooding, isensured by slow entry of ink-replacing air to the reservoir through thenarrow annular space IS, the aperture M in the tip 9 and one or more ofthe grooves 18 in the feed-bar. When the pen is of the self-fillingtype, filling is effected by immersing the lower end of the pointsection I in ink and collapsing and expanding the ink-sac 8. Air isexpelled from and ink sucked into the latter through the passagesthrough which ink-replacing air passes to the reservoir during the useof the pen.

The one-piece tip 9 according to this invention can be produced andfinished at a relatively low cost and the pen can be assembled rapidlyby unskilled labour since there is no separate fine-bore tube to befixed in place. important advantage is that the bore of the point {D ofthe tip isalways in axial alignment with the rest of the tip so that thefeed wire I! may always move freely therein and thus ensure a free fiowof ink. In addition, the thin-Walled construction of the tip allows of alarger diameter feed-bar It being employed so that the latter maybe madeheavier than usual and thus ensure a more certain movement of the feedwire.

In a modification of the invention, the tip 9 may be screwed into thebore in the point section I.

What we claim is:

1. Stylographic pen, particularly a self-filling stylographic pen,comprising a tubular point section having a relatively wide mouth, atubular tip fixed in the said mouth and a fine-bore tube, whichconstitutes the writing point, formed with the said tip as one integralpart of non-corrodible metal.

2. Stylographic pen, particularly a self-filling stylographic pen,comprising a tubular point section, a tubular tip fitted into andfrictionally retained in the bore of the point section, a writing pointformed integrally with the tubular tip, the point section being formedat its free end with an internal space open to the atmosphere and thetip being formed with at least one aperture aifording communicationbetween its interior and the said space.

3. Stylographic pen according to claim 1, wherein the integral writingpoint and tip are made of stainless steel.

4. Stylographic pen according to claim 1, in .combination with aweighted feed bar contained in the tubular tip and formed withlongitudinally extending feed grooves and a feed wire carried by thesaid bar.

5. Stylographic pen according to claim 1, in combination with a weightedfeed bar contained in the tubular tip and formed with longitudinallyextending feed grooves, and a feed Wire carried by the said bar, thesaid bar being guided with a close but not frictional fit in theinterior of the tubular tip.

6. Stylographic pen, particularly a self-filling stylographic pen,comprising a tubular point section having a relatively wide mouth, atubular tip fixed in the said mouth, a fine-bere tube, which constitutesthe writing point, formed with the said tip as an integral part ofnon-corrodible metal, a weighted feed bar guided in the interior of thetubular tip, and stop means provided in the point section and engageablewith the feed bar for preventing it from falling into the ink reservoirof the pen.

7. Stylographic pen, particularly a self-filling stylographic pen,comprising a tubular point section having a relatively wide mouth, atubular tip fixed in the said mouth and a fine-bore tube, whichconstitutes the writing point, formed with the said tip as one integralpart of noncorrodible metal, and a weighted feed bar guided in theinterior of the tubular tip and having Another retained in the bore ofthe point section, a writing pointformed integrally with the tubulartip,

an annular space open to the atmosphere being formed between theinterior of the point section at its free end and the tubular tip andthe tip being formed with at least one aperture affording communicationbetween its interior and the 5 said space.

ARTHUR EDWARD ANDREWS.

' WILLIAM FREDERICK JOHNSON.

